The background of the invention includes the following areas of technology:
A) Electronic Toll Collection (ETC)
B) Global Position Systems (GPS)
C) Waypoints and Wi-Fi hotspots
D) Geocoding
E) Navigational Systems
F) Communications Systems
All of these areas contribute various perspectives that illustrate the advantages and benefits of the invention.
A) Electronic Toll Collection (ETC)
Over the last 25 years, the crowding of highways within metropolitan areas has resulted in the development of additional traffic arteries, including fee-bearing roads known as toll roads. Toll roads have become increasingly popular; however, they require the payment of a toll fee for use by vehicular occupants and/or subscribers. The collection of tolls by conventional means has had a negative effect upon highway throughput and safety. Congestion and long backups at toll plazas are becoming more common. Such conditions involve a significant economic cost, through lost time and reduced productivity. The number of idling vehicles at a toll booth has a negative environmental impact. Moreover, serious accidents at toll plazas, caused by operators or mechanical failures, have also increased in frequency.
Toll authorities have attempted to respond to these problems by providing coin-operated toll collection devices, or by instituting a toll-plate system in which toll-takers visually inspect each incoming vehicle for an appropriate toll plate or sticker. Coin operated toll collection systems do little to increase throughput, and are susceptible to fraud through the use of counterfeit coins. Toll-plate systems suffer the same deficiencies, requiring each vehicle to slow sharply while entering the visual inspection area.
Around 1990, a development ensued that helped to revolutionize toll road travel. This was the development of the electronic toll collection device.
One example of an electronic toll collection device is set forth and shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,241 issued Oct. 8, 1985. This patent relates to an electronic identification and recognition system that includes a portable card having a circuit therein for generating and transmitting an identifying signal. The identifying signal includes predetermined frequency pulses. The card functions in cooperation with a reader, which radiates a radio frequency carrier signal received by an antenna in the card. This signal is used both to power the circuit of the card and to provide the basic frequency signal, which is modified to generate secondary frequency signals, which are transmitted back to the reader in a predetermined sequence identifying the card.
Today, those individuals who frequently use toll roads often purchase an electronic toll collection device or tag. The electronic toll collection device or tag allows the vehicular occupant to bypass the cash only toll plaza and, in many instances, the vehicle can maintain its normal speed as it traverses the toll plaza wherein the passage of the electronic toll collection device is recorded. The popularity of the electronic toll collection device has expanded to the point that the normal user of the electronic toll collection device now finds the common lines at toll plazas frustrating, in those instances where they cannot be avoided because the electronic toll collection device is not available.
Tolls on turnpikes, bridges, and other toll facilities are increasingly collected through the use of electronic toll collection devices. The use of such devices to pay tolls is both faster and more convenient than paying in cash or tokens. Electronic toll collections devices allow the toll facility operator to improve customer service and satisfaction by speeding passage through the toll plaza, removing the need for the customer to stop, fumble for change, or roll down a window.
The electronic toll collection device today typically takes the form of a transponder and/or tag that is attached to the inside of the windshield of a vehicle. The toll collection device stores a number identifying a user's account. At a suitably equipped tollbooth or toll plaza, the toll collection device is read to determine the account number, and a user's account is debited by the amount due for the toll. A user's account can be an individual and/or a business entity that represents many individuals. The user must from time to time add money to the account.
Toll authorities offer discounts for the use of electronic toll collection devices to those travelers that use them. Toll charges for a driver using a transponder or tag are often less than that of drivers without a transponder or tag.
In the state of the art, large customer-service centers are staffed to open and maintain accounts, manage toll collection device inventories and distribution, and provide responses to customer questions, complaints and other needs. To obtain a toll collection device, a potential user must visit one of a limited number of such customer-service centers, which may be in an inconvenient or even unsafe location and may have limited hours of operation, or they must order a toll collection device through the mail or over the Internet and then wait for it to arrive. Even users who already have toll collection devices often have to visit customer-service centers to replenish or otherwise manage their accounts. In addition to the inconvenience to the user, such an arrangement imposes a cost on the toll authority, which must hire enough staff to serve all potential customers.
Factors hindering full-speed electronic toll collection include (a.) significant non-participation, leading to lines in manual lanes and disorderly traffic patterns as the electronic- and manual-collection cars “sort themselves out” into their respective lanes; (b.) problems with pursuing toll evaders; (c.) the need, in at least some current (barrier) systems, to confine vehicles in lanes, while interacting with the collection devices, and the dangers of high-speed collisions with the confinement structures; (d.) vehicle hazards to toll employees present in some electronic-collection areas; (e.) the fact that in some areas at some times, long lines form even to pass through the electronic-collection lanes; and (f.) costs and other issues raised when retrofitting existing toll collection facilities. Union work rules of toll collectors can also be problematic.
Even if line lengths are the same in electronic lanes as in manual ones, electronic tolls save registered cars time: eliminating the stop at a window or toll machine, between successive cars passing the collection machine, means a fixed-length stretch of a journey through a toll plaza is traveled at a higher average speed, and in a lower time. This is at least a psychological improvement, even if the length of the lines in automated lanes is sufficient to make the no-stop-to-pay savings insignificant compared to the time spent waiting in line to pass the toll gate.
Despite these limitations, however, it is important to recognize that throughput increases if delay at the toll gate is reduced (i.e., if the tollbooth can serve more vehicles per hour). The greater the throughput of any toll lane, the fewer lanes required, so expensive construction can be deferred. Specifically, the toll-collecting authorities have incentives to resist pressure to limit the fraction of electronic lanes in order to limit the length of manual-lane lines. In the short term, the greater the fraction of automated lanes, the lower the cost of operation (once the capital costs of automating are amortized). In the long term, the greater the relative advantage of registering one's vehicle for electronic tolling, the faster cars will be converted from manual-toll use to electronic-toll use, and therefore the fewer manual-toll cars will drag down average speed and thus capacity.
Today, rental car agencies offer toll collection devices on a rental basis. A customer can choose to rent a transponder along with the rental of a car. Typically the fee for such a transponder rental is around $1.50 to $2.50 per day, in addition to the amount of tolls used. This method offers convenience to people that rent cars from rental car agencies that offer this service, but still leaves a need for travelers using their own cars and travelers that do not want to rent transponders or don't want to rent cars from the rental car agencies that offer them. Thus, a need exists for more cost effective systems and methods.
Current toll collection operations insist that customers purchase a transponder and/or tag up front, in order for them to take advantage of the benefits that electronic toll collection provides. This upfront cost may discourage some from purchasing a transponder and it therefore may be a barrier that reduces the number of potential electronic toll collection users.
Another issue is the desire to implement “open road tolling systems,” which are systems that collect tolls only automatically, without manual intervention. Toll agencies need to collect tolls from frequent users, but also desire to provide access to occasional and transitional users such as tourists, business travelers and/or seasonal residents. The cost, time and inconvenience associated with traditional toll collection device distribution, and the inconvenience of account set up, typically mean that agencies need to maintain a fair number of lanes for cash collection tolls.
Some toll roads in recent years (for example, Highway 407 in Toronto) have moved to all-electronic collection that uses a combination of RFID tags and “pay by plate.” In “pay by plate” the agency deploys a system to capture the license plate image in lieu of the toll collection device. It then accesses the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) database to obtain the vehicle owner's information and bills the vehicle owner for the transaction. This typically requires special legislation and expensive camera equipment and is therefore an expensive process to administer that drives up the cost of toll collection.
In the state of the art, Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) is being used for Electronic Vehicle Identification (EVI) for various purposes including toll collection. EVI specifically involves the use of RFID technology to electronically identify vehicles and validate the identity, status and authenticity of vehicle data. EVI enables government agencies to automatically detect and screen motor vehicles for compliance with government regulations. EVI also enables automated enforcement actions and violation processing as well as automated security monitoring and enforcement. In the future it is believed that an increasing number of governmental agencies will wish to implement EVI, which will accelerate the need to include electronic identification in vehicles. A need exist for systems and methods that can be linked together electronically and reduce the cost of implementing EVI.
In the state of the art a “flat tag” type of transponder is in use for toll collection. The flat tag is a decal sticker or thin card based transponder. Examples include the FasTrak tag used by the Transportation Core Agencies (TCA) in Orange County, Calif., and the eGo Plus Sticker Tag offered by TC IP, Ltd. d/b/a TransCore, for use with TransCore branded or other ANSI INCITS 256-2001 and ISO 10374 compliant tag readers. This type of transponder eliminates the drawbacks associated with the larger box type transponder. Another added benefit of the flat tag is a lower consumer price point. Flat tags are much less expensive to manufacture and can even be disposable. These tags should help toll authorities increase the number of electronic toll users, which is their stated mission. Using mobile devices in place of either transponders and/or tags would help toll authorities increase the number of electronic toll users and further reduce toll administration expense.
There are pending patent applications and existing patents that suggest using toll “zones” and/or toll “areas” in conjunction with wireless mobile devices such as cell phones for paying tolls. One example of this is set forth and shown in Patent Application Publication Number US2007/0285280 A1 dated Dec. 13, 2007 submitted by Rent-A-Toll, Inc., Plano, Tex. and entitled: “Providing toll services using a cellular device”. Using “virtual” toll locations in lieu of toll “zones” and/or toll “areas” could be more accurate, timelier and more consistent with existing systems and methods.
Toll road enforcement is accomplished by a combination of a camera which takes a picture of the car and a radio frequency keyed computer which searches for a driver's window/bumper mounted transponder to verify and collect payment. The system sends a notice and fine to cars that pass through without having an active account or paying a toll.
Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds. Tolls have been placed on roads at various times in history, often to generate funds for repayment of toll revenue bonds used to finance construction and/or maintenance operations. As the road infrastructure in the US and Europe continue to age, it may become necessary to transform numerous non-toll roads into toll roads. A need thus exists to minimize the cost of any such transformations.
And finally, ETC systems rely on four major components: automated vehicle identification, automated vehicle classification, transaction processing, and violation enforcement. The four components are somewhat independent, and, in fact, some toll agencies have contracted out functions separately. In some cases, this division of functions has resulted in difficulties. In one notable example, the New Jersey E-ZPass regional consortium's Violation Enforcement contractor did not have access to the Violation Processing contractor's database of customers. This, together with installation problems in the automated vehicle identification system, has led to many customers receiving erroneous violation notices, and a violation system whose net income, after expenses, was negative, as well as customer dissatisfaction. A need exist for additional systems and methods that can eliminate these problems and electronically link to all appropriate existing systems.
B) Global Position Systems (GPS)
One technology that is finding more applications is global positioning systems (GPS). Through this technology, a geographic location for a person, place or device may be determined within a small margin of error. These devices work by triangulating signals received from at least three satellites orbiting the earth, and then through performance of various calculations, a precise geographic position may be determined. The devices created to perform these calculations have been miniaturized to the point that the components may be incorporated into a chip set which easily fits within handheld mobile devices such as GPS navigation devices from vendors such as Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, Navigon etc. and/or wireless communication devices such as cell/mobile phone devices, PDAs etc.
GPS receivers are described in several publications and references, such as the U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,248, issued on Jun. 18, 1996, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. This patent discloses a personal Digital Location Assistant based on a GPS Smart Antenna and a computing device.
WAAS stands for Wide Area Augmentation System for the American continent and EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System) for the European continent. Basically, they are systems of satellites and ground stations that provide GPS signal corrections that yield better position accuracy. A WAAS-capable receiver can provide position accuracy of better than three meters (10 feet).
Distances measured from an antenna to four or more satellites enable the antenna position to be calculated with reference to the global ellipsoid WGS-84. Local northing, easting and elevation coordinates can then be determined by applying appropriate datum transformation and map projection. By using carrier phase differences in any one of several known techniques, the antenna location can be determined to accuracy on the order of +/−0.1 cm.
The Trimble GPS Pathfinder® ProXH™ receiver and the GeoXH™ handheld, with H-Star technology, enable subfoot (30 cm) post processed accuracy, and when used with an external Zephyr™ antenna, the receivers are capable of 8 inches (20 cm) or better.
Skyhook Wireless uses something they call XPS, which is a software-only location platform that can quickly determine the location of any Wi-Fi enabled mobile device with an accuracy of 10 to 20 meters. To quickly and reliably arrive at accurate location results, XPS synthesizes data from Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), GPS satellites and Cell Towers. WPS determines location based on Skyhook's massive worldwide database of known Wi-Fi hotspots. It performs best where GPS is weakest, in urban areas and indoors. It then uses advanced hybrid positioning algorithms to combine each of these location sources to arrive at a single position with a high degree of confidence. By leveraging the strengths of more than one underlying position technology, XPS provides the best location available to mobile applications and devices today. Skyhook Wireless Inc. has numerous related patents: U.S. Pat. No. 7,433,694: Location beacon database, U.S. Pat. No. 7,414,988: Server for updating location beacon database, U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,245: Location-based services that choose location algorithms based on number of detected Wi-Fi hotspots within range of user device, U.S. Pat. No. 7,403,762: Method and system for building a location beacon database, U.S. Pat. No. 7,502,620: Encoding and compression of a location beacon database, U.S. Pat. No. 7,493,127: Continuous data optimization of new Wi-Fi hotspots in positioning systems, U.S. Pat. No. 7,474,897: Continuous data optimization by filtering and positioning systems, U.S. Pat. No. 7,471,954: Methods and systems for estimating a user position in a WLAN positioning system based on user assigned Wi-Fi hotspot locations, U.S. Pat. No. 7,515,578: Estimation of positioning using WLAN Wi-Fi hotspot radio propagation characteristics in a WLAN positioning system, U.S. Pat. No. 7,551,579: Calculation of quality of WLAN Wi-Fi hotspot characterization for use in a WLAN positioning system, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,551,929: Estimation of speed and direction of travel in a WLAN positioning system using multiple position estimations. These patents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The accuracy available today via GPS and Wi-Fi described above, allows GPS and Wi-Fi devices to determine and record precise real time geographic locations of mobile devices in vehicles. A predominant trend in positioning systems is toward an increase in accuracy. This increased accuracy allows for the creation of new methods and systems using GPS.
C) Waypoints and Wi-Fi Hotspots
A waypoint is a reference point in physical space used for purposes of navigation. Waypoints are sets of coordinates (latitudes and longitudes) that identify points in physical space. Waypoints have only become widespread for navigational use by the layman since the development of advanced navigational systems, such as GPS and certain other types of navigation. Waypoints located on the surface of the Earth are usually defined in two dimensions (e.g., longitude and latitude); waypoints used in the Earth's atmosphere or in outer space are defined in at least three dimensions (four if time is one of the coordinates, as it might be for some waypoints outside the Earth).
In the modern world, waypoints are increasingly abstract, often having no obvious relationship to any distinctive features of the real world. These waypoints are used to help define invisible routing paths for navigation. Abstract waypoints of this kind have been made practical by modern navigation technologies, such as land-based radio beacons and the satellite-based GPS. Abstract waypoints typically have only specified longitude and latitude or UTM coordinates, and often a name if they are marked on charts, and are located using a radio navigation system such as a VOR or GPS receiver. A waypoint can be a destination, a fix along a planned course used to make a journey, or simply a point of reference useful for navigation. GPS systems and/or devices are increasingly used to create and use waypoints in navigation of all kinds.
Waypoints can also be marked on a computer mapping program and uploaded to a GPS receiver, marked on the receiver's own internal map, or entered manually on the device as a pair of coordinates. Waypoints can be used to help define invisible routing paths for navigation. Waypoints can also be part of commercial collections, especially those that ship with digital maps, or that are sold on a subscription basis like Navteq and Teleatlas.
Many GPS receivers, both military and civilian, now offer integrated cartographic databases (also known as base maps), allowing users to locate a point on a map and define it as a waypoint. Some GPS systems intended for automobile navigation can generate a suggested driving route between two waypoints, based on the cartographic database.
Most GPS receivers allow the user to assign numerous attributes to each waypoint. Many models also let the user select a symbol or icon to identify the waypoint on a graphical map display from a built-in library of icons. These include standard map symbols for marine navigation aids such as buoys, marinas and anchorages, as well as such land-based symbols as churches, bridges, shopping centers, parks, tunnels etc. Toll plazas are often not included.
Typically a Wi-Fi hotspot is a physical location that offers internet access over a wireless LAN through the use of a shared internet connection and a single router. Wi-Fi hotspots are sometimes referred to as wireless access points or wireless networks open to the public. Wi-Fi hotspots can often be found in coffee shops, restaurants, bowling alleys and various other public places throughout much of North America and Europe. Many business models have emerged for Wi-Fi hotspots. The final structure of the Wi-Fi hotspot marketplace will ultimately have to consider the intellectual property rights of the early movers; portfolios of more than 1,000 allowed and pending patent claims are held by some of these parties.
Location-based services are an emerging area of mobile applications that leverages the ability of new devices to calculate their current geographic position and report that to a user or to a service. Some examples of these services include local weather, traffic updates, driving directions, child trackers, buddy finders and urban concierge services. These new location sensitive devices rely on a variety of technologies that all use the same general concept. Using radio signals coming from known reference points, these devices can mathematically calculate the user's position relative to these reference points. Each of these approaches has its strengths and weaknesses based on the radio technology and the positioning algorithms they employ.
Performance and reliability of the underlying positioning system are the key drivers to the successful deployment of any location based service. Performance refers to the accuracy levels that the system achieves for that given use case. Reliability refers to the percentage of time that the desired performance levels are achieved.
D) Geocoding
Geocoding is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,496 issued on Aug. 8, 2000, which patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In the context of spatially meaningful databases, geocoding is the act, method or process of assigning x and y coordinates (usually but not limited to latitude and longitude) to records, lists and files containing location information (full addresses, partial addresses, zip codes, census FIPS codes, etc.) for cartographic or any other form of spatial analysis or reference.
Geocoding is often performed by running ungeocoded (referred to hereafter as “raw data”) information such as a list of customers through software and/or data which performs table lookup, fuzzy logic and address matching against an entire “library” of all known or available addresses (referred to hereafter as “georeferenced library”) with associated x, y location coordinates. Since toll plazas do not have addresses they cannot be automatically geocoded.
Various technologies for providing location information include triangulation using radio signals, GPS, and other technologies described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,528,248 and 6,477,379. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/159,195 filed on May 31, 2002 discloses a method and system for obtaining geocodes corresponding to addresses and addresses corresponding to geocodes. This application claims the benefit of the disclosure and filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/256,103 filed on May 31, 2001. These patent applications are also incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. These and other means for determining geographical position, including those developed subsequent to this invention, may be used to provide location information.
Locations may be specified by various means, both actual and representational, including geocodes, centroids, and street vectors/segments. These and other terms may be used by various technologies to provide systems and methods for delivering spatially dependent services such as paying tolls electronically.
E) Navigation Systems
Navigational systems, defined as systems that provide a unit's local position and a way of planning a course around the unit's local position, sometimes to a remote position, such as in-vehicle navigations systems do, are well known in the art. Typically, an in-vehicle navigation system consists of a display screen, processing unit, storage unit, and user input mechanism. The storage system typically contains, for example, maps and travel information used for navigational purposes. Travel information may include such items as waypoints and/or points of interest (POIs), local restaurants, theaters, municipality locations, and the like. These navigational systems do not currently include toll locations.
There are numerous mobile devices that can function as navigation systems because they either have a GPS chip inside or are able to connect to a GPS receiver. Examples of these devices include but are not limited to GPS navigation devices such as those made by Garmin, Magellan, Navigon and TomTom etc., cell/mobile phone devices, PDAs, music, video players and laptop computers.
F) Communications Systems
A communications system provides the functionality to provide wireless mobile device users directional information to a desired destination. Incorporated into a wireless mobile device is a position-determining device such as a GPS device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,814 is a cellular telephone system that uses the position of a mobile unit to make call management decisions, held by Dennison, et al., and is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety. The geographic location of the mobile unit is precisely determined using triangulation, a NAVSTAR global positioning system, or its equivalent. Each mobile unit includes a GPS receiver that receives information from a geostationary satellite to determine the precise location of the mobile unit. When a phone user establishes a connection with a particular switch in the wireless network, this positional information from the GPS device is provided and the exact location of the wireless device may be determined.
Advances in telecommunications technology have enabled faster and more accurate location of users carrying mobile devices. Examples of such technology are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,477,362 and 6,477,379, both issued on Nov. 5, 2002, which patents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. These patents respectively describe systems for directing emergency services to a user based on her or his location and for locating a mobile device with the aid of two or more cell sites. U.S. Pat. No. 7,397,424 describes a system and method for enabling continuous geographic location estimation for wireless computing devices. The system and methods in this patent combine GPS, WiFi, and cellular technologies in order to determine super-accurate location information. U.S. Pat. No. 7,397,424 is hereby herein by reference in its entirety.
In 2008 the US cellular market is estimated at around 250-300 million devices and this number is growing at over 10% per year. Europe already has over 400 million cell phone users, and the global market is over 2.0 billion devices. Cell phone carriers are constantly looking for opportunities to both increase revenue and profits by providing new services. Some cellular phones now provide Internet access allowing the use of Internet applications, including browsers to allow access to Internet web pages from the phone.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,333,820, held by Networks In Motion, Inc., describes a system and method for providing routing, mapping, and relative position information to users of a communication network. It describes a system that determines local and/or remote position information which does not require an extensive collection of DVD or CD-ROM discs, which is able to provide location and destination address or position information given a telephone number, and which is up-to-date and reliable and can be accessed via a networked online server(s). Additionally, this patent is for a system that determines local and/or remote position information of devices that are not always associated by telephone numbers, but IP addresses or the like, and which can obtain such position information instantaneously and share it, by means of authentication and authorization protocols, without requiring any prior configuration. U.S. Pat. No. 7,333,820 is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety.
In Helsinki, Finland on Sep. 17, 2009 a company named GloPos issued a press release stating that they have patent pending software-only positioning technology that makes all mobile phones location aware—outdoors, indoors, and even underground. They go on to state that their technology only requires a cellular network communication system and that no additional hardware like GPS or W-LAN is required. GloPos' patent pending self learning algorithms claim to calculate an accurate position fix to within 1 to 40 meters in places where no W-LAN Wi-Fi hotspots are available or no GPS can be used. This new technology enables operator-independent positioning for mobile devices anywhere a GSM network is available. Until this announcement, positioning applications were only capable of serving less than half of the 2009 yearly 1.3 billion unit mobile market. GloPos' pending patent is herby incorporated herein in its entirety.
A number of patents have been issued for highway toll collection systems, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,079 Issued Feb. 6, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,678 Issued Feb. 24, 1998, PCT Patent Application No. PCT/DE00/02487 Filed Jul. 25, 2001, PCT Patent Application No. PCT/DE01/03947 Filed Oct. 16, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 7,215,255 Issued May 8, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 7,254,382 Issued Aug. 7, 2007, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,255,264 Issued Aug. 14, 2007, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.